Bombay High Court transfers Pune student death probe to CBI on petition by parents

The case of the death of a student of Pune's Symbiosis Institute of Design nearly two years ago, has been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the parents of the girl petitioned the Bombay High Court that the probe by the police so far did not answer many questions.

A division bench of judge VM Kanade and PD Kode ordered the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to hand over all documents in the case to the CBI. The court also directed the CBI to file its first report on the investigations in six weeks.

The girl, Sanam Hassan, had gone out with friends on October 3, 2012, to celebrate her birthday and the following morning her parents were informed that she had been taken to the Ruby Hall Clinic where she was declared dead on arrival.

“There were several discrepancies in the investigations by the CID. Like it has not been explained when and why all call details and messages from the girl's phone were deleted,” said Aniket Nikam, advocate for the parents of the girl.

“The disappearance of the security guard at the building where the group was partying and the failure of the police to trace the man also raised questions,” he said.

The CID told the court that the girl died following cardiac arrest, caused by an excessive intake of alcohol. The parents challenged this saying that their daughter was a football player and in the pink of health.

The petition by the parents also stated that the forensic tests were inconclusive as the sample turned out to be that of a male person.

The parents said that when they made enquiries with the police they did not get a proper response and were ill-treated by the cops. Consequently, they also wrote to the state home minister, who had transferred the probe to the CID.